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Crosby vs. McDavid! Penguins Line Combos & News

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The two biggest stars in hockey go face to face tonight. Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid face off tonight at 7pm. Crosby currently has 5 goals and 5 assists. McDavid has 3 goals and 5 assists. Listen to the Sidney Crosby interview:

 

Backup goalie Antti Niemi was claimed on waivers by the Florida Panthers. Yes, really. You may recall, Penguins forward Conor Sheary injured Panthers starting goaltender Roberto Luongo, last Friday. Evil genius?

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Pens farmhand Casey DeSmith, 26, will backup Matt Murray until the Penguins organization “moves forward”. The Penguins recalled Casey DeSmith on Monday after placing Niemi on waivers. The Penguins passed on other backup options, as recently as a couple weeks ago. Dan Kingerski breaks down the Niemi saga and looks at 3 external options for backup goalie, HERE

Newly acquired Riley Sheahan is expected to make his debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Edmonton Oilers, tonight.  He will continue to wear the same number he had with the Detroit Red Wings, #15. Sheahan is also expected to flanked buy the two Swedes on the third line: Carl Hagelin and Patric Hornqvist.  Dan Kingerski takes a look at the  Riley Sheahan trade, HERE.

Riley Sheahan scores the last goal at the Joe Lewis Arena:

Here are the lines from yesterday’s practice:

 

Injury report:

Carter Rowney suffered an injured hand in the Tampa Bay Lightning game, Saturday. He has been placed on injured reserve.

Defensemen Matt Hunwick – “He is making progress,” said coach Mike Sullivan. Hunwick skated yesterday but remains on the injured reserve.

Not on the injured reserve, but worth mentioning – Ian Cole doesn’t look like he missed a beat. You might remember that he took a nasty-looking slap shot to the face.  He lost three teeth. OUCH!  He will most likely wear a face shield for the time being.

Possible Oilers line combinations:

The Oilers lines should look like this tonight.  Leon Draisaitl and Drake Caggiula are both game time decisions.

Maroon – McDavid – Yamamoto

Lucic – Nugent-Hopkins – Strome

Jokinen – Malone – Kassian

Pakarine – Letestu – Slepyshev

Defensive parings:

Klefbom –  Larsson

Russel – Benning

Nurse – Gryba

In goal:

Talbot

 

Closing thought:

Not that there is a lot of animosity between the Oilers and the Penguins, but Ryan Reaves has been pretty quiet since his commanding performance at the Predators game.  Could Milan be a fight waiting to happen?  Now I know this isn’t like him going after Brandon Dubinsky, but it sure would be an interesting fight.

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